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y family used to live at 54 Henry Street, located on the lower east side of Manhattan.  At the time, this was just at the outskirts of Chinatown. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment which only cost fifty dollars a month for rent.  I remember the apartment number was 1, and it was situated right next to the apartment’s garbage cans.  It used to stink so bad sometimes, that at an early age, "garbage day" had new meaning for me.  Obviously, we weren’t very wealthy, but my parents managed to get my sister and I by.

One day, I remembered hearing some commotion outside.  It sounded like a bunch of kids yelling and laughing.  My mother noticed my curiosity and brought me out to the porch to watch.  There was a bunch of kids playing the game of tag on the sidewalk where they used a fire hydrant as "base."  Some of them were running around and others were just to the side watching and yelling out assorted things to the person who was labeled "it." This was the first time I had witnessed this game.  I thought this was the neatest thing and probably appeared pretty excited, so my mother encouraged me to join in and play the game with them.  I was always pretty shy as a kid, and don’t recall if I did or not, but I remember how amazed I felt when I watched the others running around while I hid behind my mother’s legs.

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